Religious  Liberty 
In  the  United  States 


259 


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Religious  Liberty  ^  .  /?   / 

In  the  United  States 


By 
OSCAR  S.  STRAUS 

FORMER   UNITED   STATES    MINISTER   TO   TURKEY 

AUTHOR   OF    "  ROGER   WILLIAMS  THE    PIONEER 

OF   RELIGIOUS   LIBERTY1' 

"  THE    ORIGIN   OF   REPUBLICAN    FORM    OF   GOVERNMENT 

IN   THE    UNITED    STATES  " 


An  address  delivered  before  the 
Yale  College  Kent  Club,  New   Haven 
Contemporary  Club,  Philadelphia 
Y.  M.  H.  A.,  New  York 


NEW  YORK:  1896 

PHILIP  COWEN,  PUBLISHER 

213-215  E.  44TH  STREET 


COPYRIGHTED    1 896 
BY  OSCAR  S.  STRAUS 


Religious  Liberty  in  the  United  States 


'"T^HE  spirit  of  patriotism  is  kindled  on  the 
altars  of  our  national  history.  "  Few 
greater  calamities,"  says  Lecky,  "  can  befall 
a  nation  than  to  cut  herself  off,  as  France  did 
in  her  great  Revolution,  from  all  vital  connec- 
tion with  her  own  past. ' '  History  is  to  a  nation 
what  experience  is  to  an  individual,  and  just  as 
a  wise  man  will  guide  himself  by  ' '  the  lamp  of 
experience,"  so  will  a  patriotic  people  run  not 
after  strange  gods,  but  will  direct  their  course 
under  the  guidance  of  the  philosophy  of  their 
own  past.  Fortunately,  our  national  history 
is  a  legible  book  which  the  dust  of  ages  has  not 
obliterated,  so  that  it  cannot  be  said  of  our  past, 
as  Gibbon  said  in  speaking  of  the  first  thousand 


2  RELIGIOUS  LIBERTY 

years  of  the  British  Empire,  that  it  was  "  fami- 
liar to  the  most  ignorant  and  obscure  to  the  most 
learned." 

In  the  heat  of  party  and  sectional  controver- 
sies of  the  day,  we  are  too  apt  to  forget  that  the 
liberties  we  enjoy  did  not  spring  into  existence 
spontaneously  and  full-grown,  but  were  the  fruit 
of  a  gradual  and  logical  development,  whose 
roots  run  far  into  the  past  experience  of  the 
nations  of  the  old  world  from  whom  came  the 
early  settlers  who  composed  the  thirteen  original 
colonies.  These  colonists  brought  with  them 
their  national  traits,  which  is  but  another  name 
for  the  reflex  of  national  experience  upon  per- 
sonal character.  They  brought  with  them  their 
religious  beliefs  and  aspirations,  which  were  in- 
tensified by  a  sense  of  martyrdom  because  of 
persecutions  they  had  suffered  in  their  native 
lands.  In  the  days  of  Brewster,  of  Winthrop,  of 
Calvert  and  of  Penn,  America  was  not  an  invit- 
ing country  either  for  permanent  abode  or  as  a 
place  of  recreation ;  nor  did  it  offer  attractions 
to  pleasure-seekers.  It  required  some  strong 


IN  THE  UNITED  STA  TES.  3 

inducements  for  men  with  their  wives  and  chil- 
dren to  brave  the  dangers  of  the  sea  and  the  still 
greater  dangers  and  hardships  that  awaited  them 
on  land.  But  for  those  inducements  the  develop- 
ment of  our  continent  would  have  been  delayed 
and  it  would  have  continued  for  many  years  to 
serve  as  trading  posts  for  English  and  Dutch 
merchants,  and  as  Europe's  Siberia. 

Colonization  in  all  ages  was  due  either  to 
conquest,  to  commerce  or  to  causes  of  conscience. 
The  great  extension  of  the  Greek  and  Roman 
empires  under  Alexander  and  Caesar  arose  out 
of  the  first  of  these  causes.  The  great  power 
of  the  Venetian  republic  in  the  thirteenth  cen- 
tury was  owing  to  its  commercial  spirit.  The 
early  colonization  of  North  America  is  chiefly 
to  be  attributed  to  causes  of  conscience.  Perse- 
cution has  ever  been  an  active  colonizer,  and 
has  usually  supplied  an  element  well  adapted 
for  the  purpose  of  building  up  a  cultured  and 
enlightened  community.  In  every  age  it  was 
not  the  worst,  but,  according  to  the  real  measure 
of  worth,  rather  the  best  among  a  people  who, 


4  RELIGIO  US  LIBER  TV 

true  to  their  consciences,  sacrificed  their  tempo- 
ral advantages  upon  the  altar  of  their  faith. 

The  cradle  of  religious  liberty  has  been 
rocked  by  the  worst  passions  of  mankind.  Until 
comparatively  recent  times,  every  sect  was  intol- 
erant from  conviction,  and  held  it  as  a  sacred 
duty  to  banish  or  burn  the  unrepentant  heretics. 
Even  heretics,  when  they  became  dominant,  were 
not  less  intolerant  toward  their  former  orthodox 
persecutors.  Do  unto  others  as  others  have  done 
unto  you  was  the  rule  of  persecutors.  Heresy, 
whatever  it  may  signify  ecclesiastically,  was  his- 
torically the  penalty  for  dissent  exacted  by  the 
State  religion  from  conscientious  sectaries.  ' '  I 
never  knew  the  time  in  England,"  said  Milton, 
"when  men  of  truest  religion  were  not  counted 
sectaries." 

In  the  United  States  liberty  of  worship  and 
of  belief  in  matters  of  religion  is  not  a  concession 
or  a  privilege  ;  it  is  a  fundamental  right  recog- 
nized as  being  inherent  in  every  individual,  and 
the  federal  government  is  pledged  not  to  abridge 
it  or  in  any  wise  interfere  therewith.  This  is  the 


JN  THE  UNITED  STA  TES  5 

signification  of  our  national  constitution.  Had 
the  Constitution  remained  silent  upon  the  sub- 
ject, religious  liberty  would  still  have  existed 
under  and  by  reason  of  it ;  yet,  in  that  event, 
what  would  have  been  the  subject  of  construction 
has  been  placed  beyond  cavil  or  dispute,  so  that 
even  if  a  less  liberal  spirit  should  prevail,  Con- 
gress could  not  assume  the  right  to  legislate  sec- 
tarianism, Protestantism,  Romanism,  or  any  form 
of  religion  into  civil  life.  The  statesmen  who 
framed  our  Constitution  were  too  well  read  in  the 
history  of  other  governments,  and  had  before 
them  too  clearly  the  sufferings  of  the  people  in 
their  colonial  state,  not  to  dread  and  anticipate 
the  abuse  of  authority  resulting  from  the  greed  of 
power  and  the  selfishness  of  sects,  so  they  wisely 
guarded  against  this  contingency  by  express 
enactment,  whereby  it  is  provided  that  "  No  reli- 
gious test  shall  ever  be  required  as  a  qualification 
to  any  office  or  public  trust  under  the  United 
States." 

When  the  Constitution   was  submitted   for 
ratification    to  the   several    states,    considerable 


6  RELIGIOUS  LIBERTY 

uneasiness  was  manifested  at  the  failure  of  Mr. 
Pinckney's  resolution  in  the  Federal  Conven- 
tion, that  ' '  The  Legislature  of  the  United  States 
shall  pass  no  law  on  the  subject  of  religion  ;" 
and  upon  ratifying  the  instrument,  the  New 
Hampshire,  New  York  and  Virginia  conventions 
urged  the  adoption  of  an  amendment  to  that 
effect. 

The  conventions  of  the  several  states  which 
were  held  in  1777  and  1778  reflected  the  conflict- 
ing sentiments  then  entertained  on  the  question 
of  religious  tests.  The  exclusion  of  such  tests  as 
a  qualification  for  public  office  was  opposed  in 
those  states  which  required  such  tests,  under  the 
fear  that,  without  them,  the  Federal  Government 
might  pass  into  the  hands  of  Roman  Catholics, 
Jews  or  infidels.  It  was  alleged  that,  as  the  Con- 
stitution stood,  the  Pope  of  Rome  might  become 
President  of  the  United  States,  and  there  was 
even  a  pamphlet  printed  stating  that  objection. 
In  the  North  Carolina  Convention,  a  spirited  de- 
bate occurred,  and  Mr.  James  Iredell,  the  leader 
of  the  Federalists,  and  afterwards  by  Washington 


IN  THE  UNITED  STA  TES  1 

appointed  on  the  Supreme  Court  Bench,  referring 
to  the  subject,  said  :  "  I  met  by  accident  with  a 
pamphlet  this  morning  in  which  the  author  states 
there  is  a  very  serious  danger  that  the  Pope 
might  be  elected  President.  I  confess  this  never 
struck  me  before,  and  if  the  author  had  read  all 
the  qualifications  of  a  President,  perhaps  his  fear 
might  have  been  quieted.  No  man  but  a  native, 
or  who  has  resided  fourteen  years  in  America,  can 
be  chosen  President.  I  know  not  all  the  qualifi- 
cations for  Pope,  but  I  believe  he  must  be  taken 
from  the  College  of  Cardinals,  and  probably 
there  are  many  previous  steps  necessary  before  he 
arrives  at  this  dignity.  A  native  American  must 
have  very  singular  good  fortune  who,  after  resid- 
ing fourteen  years  in  his  own  country,  should 
come  to  Europe,  enter  Romish  orders,  obtain  the 
promotion  of  cardinal,  afterward  that  of  Pope, 
and  at  length  be  so  much  in  the  confidence  of  his 
country  as  to  be  elected  President.  It  would  be 
still  more  extraordinary,"  continues  Mr.  Iredell, 
"  if  he  should  give  up  his  popedom  for  our  presi- 
dency." 


8  RELIGIO  US  LIBER  T  Y 

On  the  other  hand,  while  several  states 
adopted  the  constitution,  the  majority  in  their 
respective  conventions  had  the  apprehension  that 
the  clause  of  the  constitution,  above  quoted,  did 
not  go  far  enough,  and  therefore  they  proposed 
amendments  guaranteeing  religious  freedom 
and  other  fundamental  rights.  The  strongest 
opposition  to  the  abolition  of  religious  tests  was 
in  Massachusetts,  where  Congregationalism  was 
the  established  church  ;  and  the  greatest  appre- 
hension that  the  exclusion  of  religious  tests,  as 
contained  in  the  constitution,  was  insufficient 
and  that  a  more  explicit  guarantee  against  the 
establishment  of  religion  was  demanded,  was  in 
Virginia  and  Rhode  Island.  The  first  Congress 
of  the  United  States  met  in  the  city  of  New 
York  under  the  constitution  on  March  4th,  1789. 
In  the  session  of  June  8th,  the  House  of  Repre- 
sentatives, on  motion  of  James  Madison  of 
Virginia,  took  into  consideration  the  amend- 
ments to  the  constitution  desired  by  the  several 
states.  Mr.  Madison  moved  the  appointment  of 
a  select  committee  to  report  preliminary  amend- 


IN  THE  UNITED  STATES  9 

merits,  and  supported  the  motion  by  a  forcible 
speech,  urging  as  a  reason  chiefly  the  duty  of 
Congress  to  remove  all  apprehensions  of  an  in- 
tention to  deprive  the  people  "  of  the  liberty  for 
which  they  valiantly  fought  and  honorably  bled." 
Congress  accordingly  sent  twelve  amendments  to 
the  Legislatures  of  the  several  states  for  ratifica- 
tion. Of  these,  ten  were  duly  ratified.  The  first 
of  these  is  the  clause,  ' '  Congress  shall  make  no 
law  respecting  an  establishment  of  religion  or 
prohibiting  the  free  exercise  thereof."* 

*  JEFFERSON  TO   DOCTOR   PRIESTLY. 

WASHINGTON,  June  19,  1802. 

I  was  in  Europe  when  the  Constitution  was  planned,  and 
never  saw  it  till  after  it  was  established.  On  receiving  it,  I 
wrote  strongly  to  Mr.  Madison,  urging  the  want  of  provision 
for  the  freedom  of  religion,  freedom  of  the  press,  trial  by 
jury,  habeas  corpus,  the  substitution  of  militia  for  a  stand- 
ing army,  and  an  express  reservation  to  the  States  of  all 
rights  not  specifically  granted  to  the  Union.  He  accordingly 
moved  in  the  first  session  of  Congress  for  these  amend- 
ments, which  were  agreed  to  and  ratified  by  the  States  as 
they  now  stand. 

Jeffersorit  Wotkt,  Vol.  4,  p.  441.  Washington,  1854. 


10  RELIGIO  US  LIBER  TV 

Brief  as  these  two  provisions  of  our  Consti- 
tution are,  they  proclaim  religious  liberty  in  its 
broadest  acceptation  as  the  fundamental  right  of 
every  American,  be  he  citizen  or  alien.  By 
incorporating  these  provisions  in  their  constitu- 
tion; the  American  people  were  the  first  to  set 
the  world  the  example  of  entirely  separating  the 
institution  which  has  for  its  object  the  support 
of  religion  from  its  political  government. 

Before  the  Revolution  the  dominant  sects  in 
the  various  colonies  were  distributed  as  follows  : 
The  Puritans  in  Massachusetts,  the  Baptists  in 
Rhode  Island,  the  Congregationalists  in  Connec- 
ticut ;  the  Dutch  and  Swedish  Protestants  in 
New  Jersey  ;  the  Anglicans  in  New  York  ;  the 
Quakers  in  Pennsylvania  ;  the  Catholics  in  Bal- 
timore ;  the  Cavaliers  in  Virginia ;  the  Baptists, 
Methodists,  Quakers  and  Presbyterians,  in  North 
Carolina ;  the  Huguenots  and  Episcopalians  in 
South  Carolina,  and  the  Methodists  in  Georgia. 
With  the  exception  of  Pennsylvania,  Maryland, 
and  Rhode  Island,  some  form  of  religious  estab- 
lishment had  existed  in  all  other  colonies. 


IN  THE  UNITED  STA  TES.  11 

Let  us  tarry  a  moment  in  Rhode  Island,  the 
land  where  the  banner  of  religious  liberty  was 
first  unfurled.  In  the  middle  of  winter,  1636,  a 
solitary  pilgrim  might  have  been  seen  wandering 
through  the  primeval  forests  of  New  England,  an 
exile  from  the  territory  of  the  Massachusetts 
Puritans,  seeking  a  place  of  refuge  from  ecclesi- 
astical tyranny,  where  he  and  all  men  might 
worship  God  according  to  the  dictates  of  their 
consciences.  At  that  time  throughout  the 
whole  civilized  world  there  was  no  such  land. 
The  colonists  of  Virginia  were  strict  conformists 
to  the  rites  of  the  Church  of  England.  There 
was  less  freedom  there  than  in  England.  The 
settled  portions  of  New  England  were  domineered 
over  by  the  Puritans  and  Pilgrim  Fathers,  who 
had  left  their  English  homes  to  escape  ecclesias- 
tical tyranny  only  to  set  up  a  greater  tyranny  of 
their  own.  This  pilgrim,  the  first  true  type  of  an 
American  freeman,  the  trusted  and  trustworthy 
friend  of  the  savage  Indian,  the  benefactor  of  all 
mankind,  was  Roger  Williams,  who  accom- 
plished what  no  one  before  this  ever  had  the 


12  RELIGIO  US  LIBER  T  Y 

courage  and  wisdom,  combined  with  the  convic- 
tion of  the  broadest  liberty,  even  to  attempt :  to 
found  a  purely  secular  state  "  as  a  shelter  for  the 
poor  and  the  persecuted  according  to  their  several 
persuasions." 

The  time,  let  us  hope,  is  not  far  off,  when 
the  civilized  people,  in  the  remotest  corners  of 
the  world,  will  recognize  the  truth  and  power  of 
the  principles  which  throw  around  the  name  of 
Roger  Williams  a  halo  of  imperishable  glory  and 
fame.  So  great  was  the  hatred  felt  towards  this 
"heretic  colony"  that  Massachusetts  passed  a 
law  prohibiting  the  inhabitants  of  Providence 
from  coming  *  within  her  bounds. 

It  is  not  surprising  that  the  Roman  Catho- 
lics, who  in  Protestant  England  were  proscribed 
as  a  class,  should  eagerly  direct  their  eyes  to  the 
new  world  for  a  place  of  refuge.  I,ord  Baltimore 
had  become  a  devout  convert  to  Romanism.  By 
reason  of  his  high  official  position  and  his  being 
in  the  good  graces  of  James  I.,  he  succeeded  in 
obtaining  a  charter  for  Maryland  which  embod- 
ied a  very  broad  conception  of  toleration.  There 


IN  THE  UNITED  STA  TES  13 

was  no  limitation  on  the  freedom  of  conscience 
save  only  that  Christianity  was  made  the  law  of 
the  land.  This  was  a  great  step  in  the  direction 
of  full  liberty  in  matters  of  religion,  and  a  century 
in  advance  of  his  time,  or  of  the  New  England 
colonies  and  Virginia.  The  same  reasons  which 
impelled  the  Pilgrims,  the  Puritans,  and  the 
Catholics  to  look  to  the  western  continent  as  a 
harbor  of  refuge  from  ecclesiastical  tyranny, 
operated  with  increased  foice  upon  the  Quakers, 
who  were  exposed  to  almost  universal  persecu- 
tion, hatred  and  contempt  not  only  by  the 
prelatical  party,  but  also  by  the  dissenters.  The 
laws  agreed  upon  in  England  for  their  govern- 
ment in  Pennsylvania  provided  for  equal  toler- 
ance of  all  sects  and  creeds  that  recognized  a 
deity,  whereby  both  Jew  and  Gentile  were  to  be 
protected  in  belief  and  in  form  of  worship.  These 
laws  went  a  step  farther  than  those  of  Maryland 
in  their  approach  to  religious  liberty,  yet  not  so 
far  as  those  of  Rhode  Island,  as  rationalists  and 
atheists  were  discriminated  against.  The  colo- 
nists, however,  shortly  after  the  arrival  of  Wil- 


14  RELIGIO  US  LIBER  TY 

Ham  Penn,  took  a  backward  step,  showing  that 
Perm's  followers  were  not  as  liberal  as  he,  for  by 
the  enactments  known  as  the  u  Great  Law  of 
Chester,"  agreed  upon  in  1682,  religious  tolera- 
tion was  curtailed,  by  providing  that  all  the 
officers  of  the  colony  should  be  only  such  as 
professed  belief  in  the  Christian  religion. 

The  perpetual  strife  which  had  existed  in 
England  between  the  prelatical  party  and  the 
Puritans  was  not  of  such  a  nature  as  to  engender 
toleration.  The  entire  contention  was  about 
ceremonies  and,  great  as  the  sufferings  of  the 
Puritans  had  been,  when  they  succeeded  to  power, 
they  did  not  rise  to  the  height  of  a  principle, 
but  were  content  to  rest  on  the  plane  of  their 
persecutors.  The  Puritans  who  sought  New 
England  were  not  actuated  altogether  by  humane 
or  liberal  motive.  They  sought  liberty  of  wor- 
ship for  themselves  and  for  themselves  only,  they 
appropriated  the  land  of  the  Indians,  and  then 
slaughtered  them  when  driven  to  rebellion,  all 
dissenting  Christians  whom  they  could  not  con- 
vince they  exiled  and  some  even  they  executed 


IN  THE  UNITED  STATES  15 

in  cold  blood  ;  in  their  eyes  toleration  was  a  her- 
esy and  liberty  was  a  crime. 

The  Virginia  colonists,  on  the  other  hand, 
were  neither  exiles  nor  refugees.  They  did  not 
come  to  the  shores  of  Virginia  to  organize  liberty 
or  to  Christianize  the  heathens,  but  to  dig  gold 
and  cultivate  tobacco.  A  story  is  told  of  an  offi- 
cial, to  whom  a  Virginia  delegation  had  com- 
mended a  measure  for  the  good  of  the  souls, 
replying,  "  damn  your  souls,  grow  tobacco." 

Their  first  charter  is  evidence  that  they  were 
nothing  more  nor  less  than  a  mercantile  corpora- 
tion of  the  South  Sea  bubble  phase,  of  which  the 
King  was  the  head,  and  whereover  he  reserved 
absolute  legislative  authority  with  the  hope  of  an 
ultimate  revenue.  "  Religion  was  established 
according  to  the  doctrine  and  the  rites  of  the 
Church  of  England  within  the  realm,  and  no 
emigrant  might  avow  dissent  or  affect  the  super- 
stitions of  the  Church  of  Rome  or  withdraw  his 
allegiance  from  King  James." 

It  is  plainly  evident  that  neither  the  Angli- 
cans of  Virginia  nor  the  Puritans  of  New  Eng- 


16  RELIC IO  US  LIBER  T  Y 

land,  both  of  whom  had  modeled  their  civil  polity 
to  conserve  state-churchism,  were  likely  to  ad- 
vance the  cause  of  religious  liberty,  if  left  to 
themselves,  as  they  hoped  to  be  ;  on  the  contrary, 
their  aims  and  efforts,  as  evinced  by  their  laws 
aud  regulations,  were  directed  to  achieve  the  op- 
posite result.  The  rise  of  that  liberty,  which 
was  destined  to  illume  the  Western  world,  must 
be  searched  for  elsewhere,  and  whatever  credit 
rightly  belongs  to  these  two  sects  arises  from 
their  violent  efforts  to  repress,  not  to  establish 
liberty  in  matters  of  conscience.  Here,  as  in  all 
communities,  liberty  came  creeping  in  with  the 
dissenting  minorities. 

Passing  over  the  intermediate  evidences  of 
intolerance  embodied  in  the  early  laws  and  regu- 
lations of  the  various  colonies,  let  us  examine, 
for  a  moment,  the  constitutions  of  several  of  the 
colonies  in  respect  to  religion  just  prior  to  the 
framing  of  our  national  constitution,  which  afford 
a  striking  illustration  of  the  intolerance  of  the 
various  sects  then  dominant.  Congregationalism 
still  continued  to  be  the  established  religion  in 


IN  THE  UNITED  STATES  17 

Massachusetts,  New  Hampshire  and  Connecticut. 
The  Church  of  England  had  the  civil  support  in 
all  the  south  ern/colonies,  and  partially  in  New 
York  and  New  Jersey.  In  Massachusetts  the 
legislature  expressly  authorized  and  impliedly 
required  compulsory  attendance  at  church  and 
the  civil  support  of  the  ministers.  Heavy  penal- 
ties were  prescribed  against  all  who  might  ques- 
tion the  divine  inspiration  of  any  book  of  the 
New  or  Old  Testament,  and  the  old  laws  against 
blasphemy  were  revived.  Similar-laws  remained 
in  force  in  Connecticut,  and  were  re-enacted  in 
New  Hampshire.  By  the  second  constitution  of 
South  Carolina,  Protestantism  was  declared  to 
be  the  established  religion  of  the  state.  The  con- 
stitution of  Maryland  contained  authority  to 
levy  a  general  and  equal  tax  for  the  support 
of  the  Christian  religion.  In  several  of  the 
states  religious  tests  for  public  office  were 
still  retained.  In  New  Hampshire,  New  Jersey, 
North  Carolina,  South  Carolina  and  Georgia,  the 
chief  officers  of  the  state  were  required  to  be  Pro- 
testants. In  Massachusetts  and  in  Maryland  all 


18  RELIGIO  US  LIBER  T  Y 

office-holders  were  required  to  declare  their  belief 
in  the  Christian  religion.  In  South  Carolina 
they  must  believe  in  a  future  state  of  rewards 
and  punishment.  In  North  Carolina  and  Penn- 
sylvania they  were  required  to  acknowledge  the 
inspiration  of  the  New  and  the  Old  Testament, 
and  in  Delaware  to  believe  in  the  Trinity. 

The  agitation  for  the  overthrow  of  the  estab- 
lished church  and  for  complete  separation  of 
Church  and  State  was  first  begun  and  success- 
fully effected  in  Virginia,  a  state  where  we  would 
least  have  expected  it,  where  the  church  was  most 
closely  allied  with  the  civil  powers,  where  it  was 
most  firmly  seated  and  had  more  privileges  than 
elsewhere,  and  where  its  restrictions  upon  dis- 
senters were  most  exacting.  By  the  several  acts 
of  the  Virginia  Assembly,  it  was  made  penal  in 
parents  to  refuse  to  have  their  children  baptized. 
They  had  prohibited  as  unlawful  the  assembling 
of  Quakers,  and  such  as  were  within  the  colony 
were  subject  to  imprisonment  until  they  should 
abjure  the  country,  and  on  their  third  return 
they  were  liable  to  the  penalty  of  death. 


IN  THE  UNITED  STA  TES  19 

Under  the  guiding  spirit  of  Thomas  Jeffer- 
son, the  first  Assembly  of  Virginia  repealed  all 
such  obnoxious  laws  as  were  still  on  the  statute 
books.  He  continued  his  onslaught  upon  the 
established  church  for  more  than  nine  years,  as- 
sisted by  Patrick  Henry  and  James  Madison  and 
the  leaders  of  the  more  liberal  sects,  until  the 
problem  of  religious  liberty  was  solved  in  all  its 
completeness.  "  These  nine  years  of  Virginia's 
debates,"  says  the  biographer  of  Jefferson,  "have 
perished,  but  something  of  their  heat  and  stren- 
uous vigor  survives  in  his  *  Notes  on  Virginia,' 
written  towards  the  end  of  the  Revolutionary 
War,  and  circulated  a  year  before  the  final  tri- 
umph of  religious  freedom."  These  vigorous 
utterances  were  the  arsenal  from  which  the  ad- 
vocates of  religious  liberty  drew  their  weapons 
for  the  space  of  fifty  years  until  the  last  remain- 
ing union  between  Church  and  State  was  severed. 
"Opinion,"  said  Mr.  Jefferson,  "is  something 
with  which  the  government  has  nothing  to  do. 
It  does  me  no  ^injury  for  my  neighbor  to  say 
there  are  twenty  gods  or  no  god.  It  is  error 


30  RELIGIO  US  LIBER  TY 

alone  which  needs  the  support  of  government ; 
truth  can  stand  by  itself.  Millions  of  innocent 
men,  women  and  children  since  the  introduction 
of  Christianity  have  been  burnt,  tortured,  fined  and 
imprisoned,  yet  we  have  not  advanced  an  inch 
toward  uniformity.  What  has  been  the  effect  ? 
To  make  one-half  the  world  fools  and  the  other 
half  hypocrites." 

That  the  passage  of  the  act  for  the  estab- 
lishment of  religious  liberty,  together  with  the 
arguments  contained  in  the  "Notes  on  Virginia," 
had  a  far-reaching  effect  and  great  weight  in  the 
Federal  Convention  which  assembled  in  May, 
1787,  at  the  city  of  Philadelphia  for  the  pur- 
pose of  framing  a  constitution,  can  scarcely  be 
doubted,  especially  when  we  take  into  consider- 
ation that  Virginia  was  the  banner  state,  repre- 
sented in  the  convention  by  Madison^and  Mason, 
both  of  whom  had  been  collaborators  with  Jef- 
ferson. 

The  separation  of  Church  and  State,  impelled 
by  the  example  of  Virginia  and  by  the  national 
constitution,  gradually  spread  from  state  to  state 


IN  THE  UNITED  STA  TES.  21 

until  the  last  link  was  severed  and  the  union 
was  forever  broken.  Many,  who  have  not  taken 
the  trouble  to  examine  this  subject,  are  under  the 
impiession  that  by  the  adoption  of  the  constitu- 
tion the  union  between  Church  and  State  was 
severed  throughout  the  United  States.  So  far  as 
the  national  government  is  concerned,  that  is 
true  in  the  sense  that  they  never  were  united;  but 
as  regards  the  state  governments,  each  was  left 
free  to  legislate  upon  the  subject  of  religion  as  it 
might  determine,  and  the  result  was,  as  we  have 
seen,  that  in  several  of  the  New  England  states 
the  Church  continued  to  be  united  with  the  State 
for  many  years,  and  to  be  supported  by  it.  The 
last  state  which  required  a  religious  test  for  office 
was  that  of  New  Hampshire,  whose  constitution, 
adopted  in  1792,  provided  that  no  one,  unless  he 
is  of  the  Protestant  religion,  shall  be  eligible  to 
the  office  of  Governor,  or  to  either  house  of  the 
Legislature.  The  reason  that  this  old  provision 
remained  until  1877  in  the  constitution  was  due 
doubtless  to  the  fact  that  the  exclusion  was  a 
dead  letter  and  was  not  of  practical  consequence. 


23  RELIGIO  US  LIBER  TY 

It  is  a  cause  of  congratulation  that  America 
has  given  the  world  at  large  and  the  governments 
of  Europe  proof  of  the  fact,  by  actual  trial,  that 
neither  Church  nor  State  is  benefited  by  being 
united  ;  on  the  contrary,  they  both  flourish  best 
in  the  atmosphere  of  freedom.* 

If  we  were  to  single  out  the  men  who  from 
the  beginning  of  our  colonial  state  until  the  pres- 
ent time  have  most  eminently  contributed  to 

*JEFFERSON  TO  JAMES  MADISON. 

PARIS,  December  16,  1786. 

"  The  Virginia  act  for  religious  freedom  has  been 
received  with  infinite  approbation  in  Europe,  and  propagat- 
ed with  enthusiasm,  I  do  not  mean  by  the  governments,  but 
by  the  individuals  who  compose  them.  It  has  been  translated 
into  French  and  Italian,  has  been  sent  to  most  of  the  courts 
of  Europe,  and  has  been  the  best  evidence  of  the  falsehood 
of  those  reports  which  stated  us  to  be  in  anarchy.  It  is  in- 
serted in  the  new  Encyclopedic,  and  is  appearing  in  most 
of  the  publications  respecting  America.  In  fact,  it  is  com- 
fortable to  see  the  standard  of  reason  at  length  erected,  af- 
ter so  many  ages,  during  which  the  human  mind  has  been 
held  in  vassalage  by  kings,  priests  and  nobles,  and  it  is 
honorable  for  us  to  have  produced  the  first  legislature  who 
had  the  courage  to  declare  that  the  reason  of  man  may  be 
trusted  with  the  formation  of  his  own  opinions." 

Jefferson's  Works,  Vol.  a,  p.  67.  1853,  Washington,  D.  C. 


IN  THE  UNITED  STA  TES  23 

fostering  and  securing  religious  freedom,  who 
have  made  this  country  of  ours  the  haven  of  re- 
fuge from  ecclesiastical  tyranny  and  persecution, 
who  have  set  an  example  more  puissant  than  army 
or  navy  for  freeing  the  conscience  of  men  from 
civil  interference,  and  have  leavened  the  mass  of 
intolerance  wherever  the  name  of  America  is 
known,  I  would  mention  first  the  Baptist,  Roger 
Williams,  who  maintained  the  principle  that  the 
civil  powers  have  no  right  to  meddle  in  matters 
of  conscience,  and  who  founded  a  state  with  that 
principle  as  its  keystone.  I  would  mention  sec- 
ond the  Catholic,  I/ord  Baltimore,  the  proprietor 
of  Maryland,  to  whom  belongs  the  credit  of  having 
established  liberty  in  matters  of  worship  which 
was  second  only  to  Rhode  Island.  I  would  name 
third  the  Quaker,  Penn,  whose  golden  motto  was 
"We  must  yield  the  liberties  we  demand." 
Fourth  on  the  list  is  Thomas  Jefferson,  that 
"arch  infidel,"  as  he  has  been  termed  by  some 
religious  writers,  who  overthrew  the  established 
church  in  his  own  state,  and  then,  with  prophetic 
statesmanship,  made  it  imposssible  for  any  church 


24  RELIGIO  US  LIBER  TY 

to  establish  itself  under  our  national  constitution 
or  in  any  way  to  abridge  the  rights  of  conscience. 

There  are  many  other  bright  names  in  our 
history,  such  as  Henry,  Mason,  Madison  and 
Franklin,  who  contributed  to  the  same  good  end, 
besides  the  champions  who  led  the  victory  in  the 
various  states,  among  whom  were  many  devout 
and  learned  ministers  of  the  several  denomina- 
tions. 

"  Religious  liberty,"  in  the  language  of  Mr. 
Thomas  F.  Bayard,  when  Secretary  of  State,  "  is 
the  chief  corner  stone  of  the  American  system  of 
government,  and  provisions  for  its  security  are 
imbedded  in  the  written  charter  and  interwoven 
in  the  moral  fabric  of  our  laws.  Anything  that 
tends  to  invade  a  right  so  essential  and  sacred 
must  be  carefully  guarded  against,  and  I  am  sat- 
isfied that  my  countrymen,  ever  mindful  of  the 
sufferings  and  sacrifices  necessary  to  obtain  it, 
will  never  consent  to  its  impairment  for  any 
reason  or  under  any  pretext  whatever." 

The  claim  has  at  times  been  made  by  bigoted 
fanatics  who  would  subvert  the  grand  charter  of 


2N  THE  UNITED  STATES  25 

our    liberties  to  serve  their  selfish  purposes,  that 
this  is  a  Christian  country  in  the  sense  that  Pro- 
testant Christianity  is  the  basis  of  our  system  of 
government,    and  that  the   rights  of   Catholics, 
Jews  and  Free-thinkers  need  not  be  considered. 
This  claim  is  usually  made  for  the  purpose  of  so 
amending  our  Constitution  as  to  establish   what 
they  believe  to  be  a  Christian  government. 

For  awhile,  in  support  of  this,  the  claim  was 
made  that  such  was  the  intent  of  the  framers  of 
the  Constitution.  In  proof  they  cited  the  fact 
that,  during  the  sitting  of  the  Federal  Conven- 
tion, at  a  time  when  it  was  feared  that  its  labors 
could  not  be  brought  to  a  successful  close,  even 
Franklin  proposed  to  call  in  the  clergymen  of 
Philadelphia,  to  request  them  to  preface  the  ses- 
sions with  prayers.  Some  writers  have  questioned 
Franklin's  sincerity  in  making  this  motion. 
Apart  from  doubt  as  to  the  purpose  of  Mr. 
Franklin  in  making  this  motion,  it  was  not 
put  to  a  vote,  and  no  prayers  were  said  either 
before,  during  or  after  the  sitting  of  this 
convention.  Franklin  states  "  the  convention, 


26 

except  three  or  four    persons,  thought  prayers 
unnecessary." 

After  the  adoption  of  the  Constitution  on  the 
4th  of  November,  1796,  during  the  Presidency  of 
Washington,  a  treaty  was  concluded  with  Tripoli, 
which  was  ratified  by  the  Senate,  under  the  presi- 
dency of  John  Adams,  on  June  7th,  1797,  wherein 
it  is  provided  :  "As  the  government  of  the  United 
States  is  not  in  any  sense  founded  on  the  Christian 
religion  ;  as  it  has  itself  no  character  of  enmity 
against  the  laws,  religion  or  tranquility  of  Mussul- 
men.  .  it  is  declared  by  the  parties  that  no 

pretext  arising  from  religious  opinions  shall  ever 
produce  an  interruption  of  harmony  existing  be- 
tween the  two  countries. "  "  This  declaimer  by 
Washington,"  says  Rev.  Dr.  Samuel  T.  Spear, 
one  of  our  ablest  writers  on  constitutional  law,  "in 
negotiating  and  by  the  Senate  in  confirming  the 
treaty  with  Tripoli,  was  not  designed  to  disparage 
the  Christian  religion,  or  indicate  any  hostility 
thereto,  but  to  set  forth  the  fact,  so  apparent  in  the 
Constitution  itself,  that  the  government  of  the 
United  States  was  not  founded  upon  that  religion, 


IN  THE  UNITED  STA  TES.  27 

and  hence  did  not  embody  or  assert  any  of  its 
doctrines.  The  language  of  this  article  in  the 
treaty  was  used  for  a  purpose,  and  that  purpose 
was  in  exact  correspondence  with  the  fact  as  con- 
tained in  the  Constitution  itself.  Christianity, 
though  the  prevalent  religion  of  the  people  when 
the  Constitution  was  adopted,  is  unknown  to  it." 
This  subject  has  been  in  some  form  or  other 
before  the  courts  in  several  states,  and  nowhere 
more  directly  at  issue  and  more  learnedly  consid- 
ered than  in  the  case  of  Minor  against  the  Board 
of  Education  of  the  City  of  Cincinnati.  The 
School  Board  was  represented  by  George  Hoad- 
ley,  late  Governor  of  Ohio ;  Stanley  Matthews, 
afterwards  Associate  Justice  of  the  United  States 
Supreme  Court,  and  by  Judge  Stallo,  later  Minis- 
ter to  Italy.  Judge  Stallo,  in  a  most  scholarly 
presentation  of  the  entire  question,  addressing 
himself  to  the  claim  made  by  the  plaintiffs  that 
Christianity  was  a  part  of  the  law  of  the  State, 
concluded  in  these  words  :  "  Christianity  was  part 
of  the  law  of  Massachusetts  two  hundred  and 
thirty  years  ago  when  Roger  Williams  was  cited 


28  RELIC 10  US  LIBER  TY 

before  the  General  Court  for  preaching  the  doc- 
trine of  liberty  of  conscience,  and  was  sent  into 
the  wilderness  in  midwinter  for  that  offence, 
when  Quakers  were  banished  and  Quakeresses 
hanged ;  it  was  part  of  the  law  of  the  State  of 
New  York,  where  the  penalty  of  death  was 
threatened  to  be  inflicted  on  Catholic  priests  for 
bringing  the  sacrament  to  the  dying  faithful ;  it 
was  part  of  the  common  law  of  Virginia,  where 
dissenters  were  required  to  build  the  churches  of 
the  Anglicans  ;  but  it  is  not  to-day  part  of  the 
common  law  of  Ohio,  or,  indeed,  of  any  state  in 
the  Union  I  know  of."* 

Mr.  L,ecky,  in  his  "Rationalism  in  Europe," 
says  :  "  In  one  age  the  persecutor  burnt  the  her- 
etic :  in  another  he  crushed  him  with  penal  laws ; 
in  a  third  he  withheld  from  him  places  of  emol- 
ument ;  in  a  fourth  he  subjected  him  to  the 
excommunication  of  society.  Each  stage  of 
advancing  toleration  marks  a  stage  of  the  decline 
of  the  spirit  of  dogmatism  and  of  the  increase 
of  the  spirit  of  truth." 

*See  article  by  Louis  Marshall,   "  Is  Ours  a  Christian 
Country?"  The  Menorah,  January,  1896. 


IN  THE  UNITED  STA  TES  29 

That  there  are  vestiges  and  distinct  traces 
of  this  infection  even  at  this  day  in  our  own 
country,  I  need  scarcely  point  out.  The  people 
in  this  country  through  severe  trials  and  conflicts 
have  successfully  expelled  from  their  civil  polity 
all  distinctions  of  creed  and  caste,  in  consonance 
with  the  great  declaration  of  the  men  of  '76,  that 
all  men  are  created  equal.  And  they  did  this  in 
the  face  of  the  governments  and  the  customs  of 
the  civilized  world,  at  a  time  when  under  all 
forms  of  polity  the  relations  which  men  bore  to 
one  another  rested  upon  distinctions  of  birth  and 
privileges  established  by  law,  at  a  time  when 
democracy,  such  as  they  organized,  based  upon 
manhood  suffrage  was  looked  upon  as  the  dream 
of  the  theorist,  suitable  only  to  the  wild1  Indian 
dwelling  in  pristine  barbarism.  On  these  broad 
and  humane  principles  and  by  reason  thereof  the 
American  people  have  built  up  a  nation  and 
achieved  a  prosperity  which  outstrips  the  pro- 
phecies of  her  most  enthusiastic  admirers.  They 
have  done  this  in  the  face  of  ancient  and  hered- 
itary prejudices  that  were  as  old  and  as  firmly  set 


30  RELIGIO  US  LIBER  T  Y 

as  the  pyramids.  It  is  especially  fitting,  aye,  more 
than  that,  it  is  the  duty  of  every  American  man 
and  woman  to  free  their  own  minds  from  ancient 
hatred  and  hereditary  prejudices,  and  to  instil  in 
the  minds  of  their  children  the  humane  princi- 
ples that  underlie  our  civil  State.  Let  them  bear 
in  mind  that  just  so  sacred  as  religion  is,  so  is 
every  one's  right  to  choose  the  one  by  which  his 
hopes  and  his  aspirations  shall  be  guided,  and 
that  every  distinction  and  proscription  based  up- 
on the  denial  of  this  sacred  right  is  as  much  in 
conflict  with  true  religion  as  with  true  demo- 
cracy. 

Hon.  J.  L.  M.  Curry,  in  his  valuable  essay, 
"  Establishment  and  Disestablishment,"  very  cor- 
rectly says:  "  In  the  United  States,  it  cannot  be  too 
frequently  or  strongly  reaffirmed,  churches  or 
denominations  or  sects  are  on  a  plane  of  undistin- 
guishable  equality  before  law.  The  government 
cannot  interfere  with  their  doctrines,  discipline, 
worship,  or  the  appointment  or  support  of  the 
clergy.  It  is  sheer  impertinence,  insolent  assump- 
tion, to  talk  of  any  American  citizens  as  Dissenters 


IN  THE  UNITED  STATES  81 

or  Non- conformists,  or  for  any  denomination  to 
arrogate  to  itself  the  name  of  '  The  Church  of  the 
United  States,'  or  for  any  ecclesiastical  functionary 
to  sign  himself  '  the  Bishop  of  Pennsylvania,'  or 
of  any  other  state.  The  Constitution,  the  political 
idea,  the  civil  policy,  of  the  United  States,  know 
no  church  or  denomination;  and,  for  convenience 
sake  or  from  wrong  use  of  words,  we  have  adopt- 
ed such  phraseology  as  '  Divorce  of  Church  and 
State,  Alliance  of  Church  and  State.  '  " 

The  spirit  that  guided  the  work  of  the 
founders  of  our  government  was  not  one  that  was 
crushed  and  screwed  into  sectarian  molds  by  the 
decrees  of  intolerant  councils  and  by  the  subtle- 
ties of  ingenious  priests — it  recognizes  the  value 
of  every  creed,  but  rises  above  them  all.  The 
grand  and  noble  purpose  was  '  to  establish  justice, 
promote  the  general  welfare,  and  secure  the 
blessings  of  liberty  to  ourselves  and  our  posterity.' 

This  is  the  lesson  of  the  development  of  civil 
as  well  as  religious  liberty  in  the  United  States. 


PRESS   OF   PHILIP   COWEN 

213-215   EAST   FORTY-FOURTH   STREET 

NEW  YORK 


A     000036506 


